


Rolling Destiny's Dice

by Marks



Category: Calvin & Hobbes, Calvin and Hobbes: The Movie (Trailer) | Gritty Reboots
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fate & Destiny, Gen, Reality Bending, Yuletide, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 17:01:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5505818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marks/pseuds/Marks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calvin thinks he created Hobbes, but that isn't right. Hobbes has always been there, waiting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rolling Destiny's Dice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jedi_penguin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jedi_penguin/gifts).



> That YouTube trailer kind of blew my mind and I knew I had to write this weird little treat for you, jedi_penguin! I hope you like it.

Calvin thinks he created Hobbes, but that isn't right. Hobbes has always been there, waiting.

+

Hobbes doesn't know exactly when he was created, maybe alongside the universe, a big bang of matter and existential imaginary tigers. As far as he can remember, he's always been there. But he knows his existence is wholly tied into Calvin's. Even before there was a Calvin, Hobbes waited for him to show up. He was created to protect Calvin, and that's a precarious position for anyone to be in. Because Calvin is special, and being special means you're going to attract an awful lot of attention. It's a pretty big adventure, but Hobbes is all-in. At least, he used to be.

Calvin is a fun kid. He doesn't realize the full extent of his powers, but he knows when he thinks things, they happen. He creates monsters and universes with a single thought, and he has fun doing it, too. Hobbes learns that adults expect that of all little kids, they call it "imagination" and think every kid is capable of it. Sure, Calvin is maybe a little _too_ into it and that makes the other kids call him weird, but wouldn't you be into it if you had a snowman army at your command?

But other kids grow out of it. Calvin never does. Adults aren't as understanding then.

+

Here's the thing: Hobbes was sent to protect Calvin from himself. He isn't a devil or a demon or whatever it is Calvin thinks of himself in his worst moments, but he was sent to unmake the universe. Think of it like the big bang in reverse -- whatever created Hobbes is going to unmake itself with Calvin's help. Nothing lasts forever, after all, and sometimes a little spring cleaning's necessary. The longer the world exists, the more evil exists and that kind of thing just isn't sustainable. But kids hate spring cleaning. _Everyone_ hates spring cleaning. And knowing the thing that's going to unmake everything is out there somewhere is hard for a lot of people to accept. Even Calvin can't accept it.

Calvin _especially_ can't accept it, if Hobbes is being honest, which is probably why he keeps trying to control it.

+

When Calvin is five years old, he breaks out his crayons and draws his mom, his dad, himself, Hobbes, their house, a tall green tree, a stripe of blue across the top of the paper for sky, and a demonic red sun that threatens to undo the earth.

+

When Calvin's twenty, the sun gets bigger and darker. When summer solstice hits, everyone expects the days to get shorter again, but they don't. They get longer and hotter and the sun hangs threateningly in the sky every day before it finally, dramatically drops out of sight each night. MSNBC and CNN have Neil Degrasse Tyson on almost every day trying to explain it. Fox News calls it the rapture and tells its viewers to repent.

Hobbes asks Calvin what he thinks it's all about. He's not sure if Calvin's the one who started it or if Calvin's presence just makes it inevitable. He gets his answer when Calvin bursts out with, "I don't _know_ how to control it!"

The next thing he knows, Hobbes is being sucked into a purple vortex next to Calvin's house and is trapped within the deepest recesses of Calvin's mind. When it happens, they're standing next to a tall green tree and the sky is very blue. It's all very Jungian and Hobbes isn't particularly into it. He's honestly too pragmatic for philosophy, which is kind of ironic if you think about it.

All he'd been trying to do is ask a question.

+

One of Hobbes' favorite memories of Calvin is also his first memory of him. Calvin's mom and dad had just gotten home from the hospital that day, and Hobbes is already waiting in the crib. By that time, Hobbes had gotten pretty good at waiting.

At three days old, Calvin is quiet and sweet, his eyes closed and his breathing even. His eyes flutter open as soon his parents leave the room, but he doesn't cry to bring them back. Instead, he pushes a hand out of his swaddling and starts waving it around, making the mobile above his head spin and spin. Hobbes and the other stuffed animals soon join the mobile in its spinning, and when Calvin's mom comes back to look in on her newborn, all the animals suddenly drop, and it's Hobbes that thumps down right next to Calvin.

And that's where Hobbes stays for the next twenty years.

+

Inside his mind prison, Hobbes can hear Calvin, can hear thoughts that he wasn't even privy to as Calvin's imaginary friend. It's frankly terrifying, and it's not because Calvin is evil. Calvin's not evil. He's very good and he wants to be normal; he's just rolled some really horrible dice of fate. Listening in on all of Calvin's confusion and self-hate and helplessness destroys more of Hobbes than any run-in with an enthusiastic dog with sharp, stuffed-animal-ripping teeth ever could. And in some way Hobbes thinks he deserves being trapped. Because if he's protecting Calvin from the forces that want to destroy him and stop the destruction of the universe, then no one ever stops Calvin. Calvin can fulfill his destiny and everything ends. Destiny has a way of happening. That's kind of its deal.

That's probably why Hobbes can't do anything when Calvin and Susie come to save him. He probably would have told them not to. Maybe stopping Hobbes is the key to keeping Calvin Calvin. Maybe in that timeline, Hobbes stays locked up inside Calvin's mind. Calvin and Susie get married and have a cute little kid, maybe a girl. That girl probably loves a stuffed tiger in a safe way, and never bends reality. That little girl grows up to have kids of her own, and those kids love their Grandpa Calvin. Calvin dies a happy old man and Hobbes dies along with him. The very fabric of reality never unravels and life goes on. Maybe that's just a pipe dream, but Hobbes wouldn't mind finding out.

So, of course Calvin and Susie find him. And of course Calvin saves him. There was never a chance Calvin wouldn't save Hobbes.

+

When Calvin undoes everything, Hobbes can't help. The universe unravels, a thread sticking out of a worn-out stuffed toy, and Calvin's the one pulling and pulling it until it all falls apart.


End file.
